Medicare for All: Communicating Across the Political Divide

Using single payer Medicare for All as a policy example, this presentation is designed to help progressives and conservatives better understand and respect each other. Despite our polarized politics, Americans are closer together on policy than it seems. This talk focuses on how to find that common ground.

We begin by showing practical applications of research from Hochschild, Lakoff, Haidt, and others and then demonstrate how to apply these lessons when speaking with groups of any political persuasion.

Ed Weisbart MD, CPE, FAAFP chairs the Missouri chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, a 32 year-old non-profit research and education organization in support of providing an improved form of Medicare to all Americans.

He is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Washington University in St. Louis MO. He volunteers in a variety of safety net clinics and other non-profits across the St. Louis area, and serves as vice president of Consumers Council of Missouri.

He received his medical degree at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1979, completed his family medicine residency and a fellowship in family medicine education at Michigan State University in 1982, and practiced family medicine at Rush Medical Center in Chicago for twenty years. He served as chief medical officer of Express Scripts from 2003 to 2010.

Dr. Weisbart has had several articles published in both national medical journals and local media regarding the healthcare needs of the uninsured.